Andrew's Corner: Supercomputers In a Financial World

November 12, 2008 by

Andrew Jones is back at it again for ZDNet. This month, he discusses the imminent decisions facing the high performance computing industry in sacrificing performance for long-term sustainment costs, especially in regard to power/cooling.

In the next couple of years, a budget of a few tens of millions of pounds will buy a supercomputer that will consume £10m per year in electricity. Psychologically, that’s a very different sell to whoever is funding the project. Approving a large budget for electricity, with a moderate capital outlay for the supercomputer to consume that electricity, will be problematic, however great the benefits in the business case.

Again, I won’t steal Andrew’s thunder. His article is an excellent insight into the growing problem of green versus speed. Read his full article here at ZDNet UK.

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